Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Via Drudge, it seems that MEchelle is totally pissed at Paula Deen, whose Southern cooking is anything but the low-fat, high vegetable fare that FLOTUS is touting. Why is she so mad? Because Paula is dishing that Empress Michelle is a hypocrite who wants MAKE everyone eat their broccoli while she chows on deep-fried Snickers, hot wings, and french fries.

The White House keeps brushing off questions about dinners thrown by the Obamas, like their Super Bowl party menu, and Michelle makes a big deal about going to the local farmer's market to get some weird kind of Thai cabbage to try to maintain the image that she's trying to create.

The Queen of the Shake Shack burger is even writing a cookbook that will ostensibly tell people how to grow their own food since her husband's administration is making it impossible to either buy affordable food or to make it flavorable using salt, butter, or whatever else is deemed to be bad for you today.

But it's tough to maintain that the Empress has no trans-fats, when all they have is excuses for every meal or photo op.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Romney is more polished but he's basically a big-government republican. Perry has executive experience, but he's also got some baggage regarding illegal immigrants. I listened to Cain on Don and Roma this morning and there were two things that impressed me: 1) he's not afraid to say that he made a mistake; 2) he studies and learns because he is not under the (mistaken) impression that he knows it all.

One of the problems with the present administration is that Obama is sure that he knows it all and is not willing to listen to alternate viewpoints. He's also willing to go around or through the Congress in order to make his worldview happen (for example, this mortgage deal that he's wanting to implement by executive fiat through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Cain doesn't strike me as a man who wants to be surrounded with 'yes' men. He's willing to listen, to learn, and is actually (ZOMG) self-reflective enough to go back and analyze his words. He's also, I think, a man for whom the Constitution holds meaning. He's willing to call a friend a friend and a foe a foe. He said that instead of putting ideology over reality, he'll listen to those with the experience that he doesn't have (it doesn't mean he'll do it, but he'll consider the alternatives carefully).

I'd really go for a Cain/Perry ticket right now and it would take something really big (not MSM-manufactured drama) to shake me from it.

I hope that the GOP machine is listening. If they don't, they will have rendered themselves both obsolete and out of jobs.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

It's interesting but not entirely surprising that one of the foci of the 'occupy' people (possibly the main focus) has been student loan debt. But not even due to the reason that a bunch of the 'occupiers' are students or professors and such, but because moveon.org started a meme about forgiving student loan debt back in the middle of September, which is about the same time that the 'occupy' movement began.

It's not a coincidence that in a study done on the demographic makeup of the 'occupiers', that 92.1% were college-educated and that 52% already had some experience 'protesting' under their belts.

Now I know some folks who came out of their undergraduate work with an extraordinary amount of student loan debt. They blamed university personnel for 'letting them' sign on for such large figures. But they weren't complaining when they were using it to pay their rent, buy their groceries, and in general use it to live rather than work while getting their degree. It was only after the time to came to pay the piper, that the complaints started.

A friend had called me all excited about the petition to forgive student loans debts until I explained the financial realities of doing so--another trillion dollars added to the national debt and, since the loan program (should) rely on payments coming in so they can use that money to loan to new students so those would be SOL since there would be no more money to loan without AGAIN increasing the national debt.

There is no doubt that the student loan system is broken, but that's what happens when government does a wholesale takeover of a formerly free enterprise kind of situation. But these folks are just going to have to suck it up, because the feds have also stacked the deck so that student loan debt cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

But I don't think it's a coincidence that the petition went out within a day of the 'occupy' movement starting. Anyone who still thinks that the 'occupy' movement is grassroots is seriously in denial of reality.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

One of my favorite bands is Blackmore's Night. It's a total win-win kind of thing--medieval music updated and Ritchie Blackmore, one of the reigning Guitar Gods, in tights. Of all of their songs, my absolute favorite (the one that runs through my brain more often than not) is the Blackmore's Night version of the Deep Purple song "Soldier of Fortune".

Candice is a bit camp, but so is the whole idea and she's got a voice that would melt butter--she's the perfect front woman for this particular gig. And it works for me, like the Transiberian Orchestra does for Christmas music.

Friday, October 21, 2011

I'm reposting this based on a link from SayUncle regarding Securing Your Home. I think it's worth revisiting. The video is now archived but it clearly illustrates the value of securing your home. This woman had and was able to defend herself when the intruder did make it into the house. She had dogs that alerted her, fences, and locked doors. She was still forced to take action, but she had plenty of warning so she could.

ANYONE who has ever gotten into a discussion with a person about why citizens need guns for self-defense, need to have those people listen to the video embedded in this article (ht Bookworm Room). Donna Jackson was on the phone to 911 while a man, whose corpse was later identified as Billy Riley, was trying to break into her house. After ten minutes, he used a piece of patio furniture to break through the sliding glass door and she was forced to shoot him with a 16 gauge shotgun.

Let me reiterate that: after TEN minutes, the police were still not at her house. She was in a home surrounded by a fence with a locked gate. The man had to go over the fence to get to the house. The woman remained calm during the whole thing and also made sure that the police knew that her dog (who had woken her up) was police friendly and made sure they knew his name. The dispatcher did her job and assured the woman that if the man got into the house, she was cleared to defend herself when it was clear that there were no other options. Mrs. Jackson told the dispatcher her every move--I have the shotgun, I'm taking it off safety, I don't want to shoot him but if he comes through the door, I will. We also hear her reaction (the audio is over 30 minutes).

I can't imagine what would have happened if she had not been armed or what the audio would have sounded like and I'm glad we don't have to find out.

Mrs. Jackson will now have to find a new hiding place for her keys and I think her son will need a new cell number since both were included in the audio, but those are small prices for her safety. I'm holding her in my thoughts that she will always know that she did what was necessary.

Apparently the Occupy Wall Street folks are shocked and disillusioned that those icky homeless people would come in and take their stuff and start fights. Of course I don't think that folks took $5500 Macbooks to their sit-ins and protests back in the day--they didn't take anything of value with them because at the time, they were actually scrounging for money themselves or were having to beg their folks to support their activities.

Guess what, we're looking at big government (and you as its tools) the same way--folks coming in and taking what is ours, without permission, and often with the threat of violence.

Gee Skippy, it must be a real eye opener to have people come in and demand things without giving anything in return. And of course, the more you're given, the more you want--all without any personal responsibility. Because of course when that knife-wielding bum threatened you, all you could do was stand in horror and let the police do the heavy lifting.

Cue the violins now. If you don't want to read my mental meanderings, check out some earlier blogposts. You have been warned.

This has been kind of an odd couple of weeks. I talked to a friend's husband while waiting for her to come home and he'd just lost a friend to a heart attack and it had hit him hard. He started talking about priorities and an ATV going to rust in the shed because he doesn't have time to enjoy it. He talked for quite a while about feelings and such that were pretty personal and really we barely know each other so he must have been really hurting and confused. We're of an age and something he said kind of stuck with me "We're now at the age where people are dying of natural causes instead of accidents."

But then a friend of a friend, who was in his mid-sixties, just went murder/suicide on his wife and himself. The second part might have been avoided, but the US Marshal decided to take over and it turned into a two-county clusterfuck. My friend, who had just seen his friend a few days before, is in somewhat of a haze--he didn't see it coming, there was absolutely no inkling, no clue, nothing he can look back on and get two plus two to add into anything like what happened.

Then there's a bunch of cops over their heads in Ohio shooting animals sitting next to their cages. Granted, dangerous animals, but really, why the wholesale slaughter of creatures who did nothing and were waiting to be fed? It makes me want to cry the way that none of the other news about man's inhumanity to man does.

Another friend has had his wife in and out of the hospital for the last few weeks searching for an elusive bleeding SOMETHING, which they finally found and fixed yesterday. Hopefully that will end the issue, but it took quite a bit of time to identify the problem and correct it.

Combine the above with shorter days, rain, and clouds, and it's awfully hard to muster anything like optimism, and I'm usually a glass-half-full kind of gal. I just want to be home on the sofa with Himself, the critters, a mug of hot chocolate, and The Cannonball Run playing on video and forget the rest of this for a while.

Okay, so some moron on a plane named Ali Reza Shahsavari starts yelling "You're all going to die! Allahu Akbar!" They get him off the plane and the comment from the feds goes something along the lines of 'it's okay, we don't think it's terrorism related, he's just an asshole.' But the part of the article that gets me is that dude was apparently born in Mississippi (that's not the part that gets me), but that there is a 'language barrier' for interviewers trying to talk to the guy, who's 29 years old.

So really, if he was born in Mississippi and has presumably been in the United States for most of his days, why on God's Green Earth would there be a frickin' language barrier?? If there's truly a language barrier for a 29 year old United States citizen in that he is incapable of discussing his situation in English then he's not a citizen, he's a colonist.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

In a study out on October 18, it seems that the Washington DC area is now the wealthiest metropolitan area in the United States. Someone should tell the Useful Idiots a.k.a. the Occupy people that wealth is not concentrated on Wall Street--the average federal employee makes $126,000 a year. They have now out-earned Silicon Valley--using our money.

This is at the same time that Harry Reid says that the public sector/government jobs MUST take precedence over private sector employment. But Mr. Reid lumps teachers in with true public employees like firemen and police officers.

The unholy union of education and public sector unions with government has led to the destruction of our K-12 system and is culminating the destruction of our country with illiterate college graduates who have been sold a bill of goods and who have totally unrealistic expectations coming out of school as to their job prospects.

Monday, October 17, 2011

A twenty-one year old junior from Illinois State University (quick google check says he's an 'environmental health' major), Sean Richards, has decided to quit school and join the Occupy Chicago protest full-time.

But riddle me this... in the article linked above, the Occupy Chicago people have both a 'police liaison' and a 'safety and security team'. Since it's pretty clear that there is funding and impetus coming from Adbusters and Working Families, maybe they are also helping to create liaisons and teams.

It's interesting too that Mr. Richards quit school WAY after the time he could get any refund on his tuition/fees/room and board so probably either student loan money or grants are going to waste also unless he and his folks are paying full freight, in which case he's just sent a bunch of money down the tubes.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

... that they've already reproduced. In MA a couple with a three week old baby couldn't find their way out of a corn maze and called the police to come find them (it took seven minutes for the cops to get to them). Here's an interesting quote from the female that seems to be indicative of the mindset of today:

"I don't know what made us do this, it was daytime when we came in, we thought if we came in someone would come in and find us..."

In other words, they figured that they'd have someone to bail them out if they got in over their heads. It never occurred to them that they were in a cornfield and could just walk out by knocking down some corn.

Maybe they could have just 'occupied' it and the Soros group would have brought them food and money.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Working where I do is giving me a unique look at higher education in this country. I see where the meme has morphed from 'we must provide worthy underprivileged kids with a chance to go to college' to 'all kids must go to college' with a myth that this path is the only way to be happy and increase future earnings. The federal government and organizations like the Lumina Foundation have been perpetuating this morphed meme and have been supporting it financially--allowing the cost of education to go up astronomically in the past twenty years.

Aside from the fact that there are many paths to happiness and a good living, the perpetuation of this meme has placed students into situations for which they are unsuited and as a corollary, is starting to create a dearth of skilled labor.

I still think of a conference I was attending where a representative from the Lumina Foundation was expounding on the idea that more students must go to and graduate from college. An older man stood up and asked something along the lines of 'In your conversations regarding the value of a college education, have you included ANYONE who hasn't attended college?' Of course the answer was no.

This meme is causing what Glenn Reynolds and others are calling the 'Higher Education Bubble'. You have students graduating from college with unreasonable expectations of salaries, who are still functionally illiterate because colleges and universities are being pressured into graduating them, and who are saddled with incredible amounts of student loan debt with absolutely no way to pay it. High school kids who should be learning how to become mechanics, electricians, plumbers, welders, or other skillsets are instead being frustrated by a system that cannot live up to what their career guidance counselors, advisers, and the media have been telling them.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Apparently there has been a war going on within the Amish community and it has escalated. A group called the Bergholz Clan, led by a man named Sam Mullet, has been attacking other Amish in their homes and were cutting off the beards of men and the hair of the women (the growing of the beard and hair is part of Amish religious and social devotion).

Two angry Mullets, Johnny and Lester, were arrested, but there are two other men and several women who have not yet been apprehended in these crimes. According to this report, the attacks are the results of a shunning of the Bergholz Clan by others in the Amish community due to allegations of sexual abuse and other issues in 2007. The Amish community is on high alert.

Sam Mullet is trying to categorize these assaults as a religious issue, rather than one that the secular authorities should be involved in. Looks to me like it's both.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Via Gateway Pundit: When discussing Chris Christie's (final) decision to not run for President, Georgette Mosbacher, RNC Finance Co-Chair basically dismissed the fact that it was important saying that the RNC is going to get behind Mitt Romney because they think that 'he's more electable'. Further, she says "He’s less conservative than a lot of us would like. However, our first and foremost goal is to defeat Obama."

This comment is one VERY big reason why I do not give money to the RNC. They are still holding to the ideas of the past--that a moderate is 'more electable'. They have missed the point that Big Government Republicans* are not what the country wants, what the Tea Partiers want, and what will actually win this country and election.

In taking this position, it is clear that the RNC is not listening to polls like this which state that a Generic Republican has a six point lead over Obama in an election. The key point that the RNC is not seeing is that the American public does not WANT a 'generic' Republican. We've had those. Bush was one, McCain was one, Romney IS one.

With the magic of the Internet, we don't NEED the RNC anymore. Neither do we want our candidates hand-picked in the (formerly smoked-filled until it was outlawed) back room of some mansion in Washington DC and handed to us. We want to choose, not to have the MSM, the RNC leadership, or the present governmental class handing us more of the same in order to perpetuate the corrupt system presently in place which is strangling the lifework and lifeblood of those who still believe that America is (or can be once again) the Land of the Free. We want REAL change in the system. We want a candidate who shares our conservative values. We want an actual decrease in the size of government, not just a decrease in the GROWTH of government. But with folks like Georgette Mosbacher still sitting in those back rooms and calling the shots, it will never happen.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

A friend of mine participated recently in a pain study--one where they induce pain and then test cognitive abilities and use an MRI to see the changes that pain makes in the brain. When I think of studying pain, I think of this:

Other things that cause me pain are Obama insisting that Congress has to "pass the bill" that is so egregious that even his own party can't get behind it; the continuing assault on our freedoms; and those tools that have nothing better to do than occupy space (and waste air).

Friday, October 7, 2011

People are going on about a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution to help rein in out of control government. They've also talked out term limits for Congressmen. I propose merging the two ideas into this: a Constitutional amendment mandating a sunset limit on all government actions--budgets, laws, rules, and regulations. I'm thinking that five years would work. Part of the problem with our present system is that all of these things have been building on each other for decades. Additionally, there have been so many new items added on top of the old that it has become the mess that we're in now.

This sunset amendment would serve two purposes: 1) it would negate the pork barrel budgets that have led the government to the point where they aren't trying to actually cut federal spending but are trying to cut the GROWTH of federal spending because all budgets (and their corresponding programs) would have to be justified every five years and given a 'yay' or 'nay' by Congress. 2) this would be a LOT of work so it would keep both the agencies and Congress busy so they won't have as much time to muck around and create new levels of laws and regulations. Doing it as an amendment would make sure that a future Congress couldn't just pass a new law to negate the sunset provisions. Oh, and as of the passing of the Amendment, all agencies, regulations, and budgets start at zero (laws will start with the oldest and work up for re-passage) and have to be assessed and voted upon (and not in batches either). The only exemption to this would be the military personnel and operations (not development) which would remain at status quo until it can be reviewed.

This amendment would make government more responsive to the people and allow it to quickly respond to changing priorities by the American public. It would also make agencies re-prioritize their functions.

As a part of this, we could also remove government from 'marriage' and leave that to the Churches. The government would recognize civil contracts/unions which would also have a sunset of five years and would have to be re-filed. Any religious ideas and responsibilities would be handled separately within the tradition of choice. You want separation of church and state as in the Federalist papers, that's the place to start.

Am I off base??

ETA: Himself pointed out that my idea is far from original and I think I must have picked it up from Mr. Heinlein in A Moon is Harsh Mistress. It must have had a more profound effect on me than I realized.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Via Chas at Southern Rockies Nature Blog: A level three sexual predator escaped from a transport van into a North Dakota cornfield. Even though they were harvesting beans and such at the time, the local farmers switched gears and started taking the corn instead. They caught him. After looking at the litany of convictions, it's too bad he didn't accidentally fall under a harvester--twice. The North Dakota police are going to try to recoup their expenses from the transportation company that clearly didn't follow procedure.

During my sojourn at the Range this last weekend, I had a run-in with TSA Canine Agent Barkley. Apparently the contents of my little overnight bag were deemed by him to be a danger to the Range and its occupants so he needed to inspect my belongings thoroughly.

TSA Barkley:

Hmmm.... stiletto heels. Sorry ma'am. These can possibly be used as weapons. I must confiscate them.

Women's delicates? Sorry ma'am. These can be considered to be a weapon in the right hands. I must confiscate these items.

Ma'am, are you aware that your bottle of shampoo is WAY above the 3 ounce limit? It can possibly be used as a weapon. I must confiscate this bottle of 'Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific'.

I can let you keep the pistol, the knives, the tweezers, the finger-nail file, and the pepper spray.

And we can possibly be persuaded to forgo the enhanced body patdown in exchange for this venison summer sausage......

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A few weeks ago, a senior faculty member told me that I needed to 'treat faculty members as if they were children' in order to get them to provide me with information. I figure this needs to be applied to the political class as well. Eric Holder apparently lied to Congress when he said he heard about Operation Fast a Furious "a few weeks" before his May interview. Now there are memos that show he knew about it a whole year ago (and probably more will come out but they are stonewalling). His defense? "I misunderstood the question." So now I think my advice to Daryl Issa is this: ask questions as if the person were either five years old or like you would interrogate a teenager getting ready to go out with friends.

For example: Instead of asking “When did you first hear about Operation Fast and Furious?”,

you ask: "When were you first made aware, by email, telephone, text message, written memorandum, verbal, sign language, semophore, aldis lamp, psychic communication, or any other interaction of any BAFTE/DoJ/FBI/DHS/any federal agency operation that was allowing the straw purchases of firearms, the purchase of firearms by federal agents, the providing of money by federal agents to a third party for the purpose of buying firearms with any or all of these actions intending to have the result of firearms ending up in either Mexico and/or in the hands of Chicago gangbangers? Please note that this Operation may have been called Operation Fast and Furious, Fast and Furious, F&F, or is now colloquially called Operation Gunwalker, or it may not have been referred to by any code name but just by the details of the operation: allowing the straw purchases of firearms, the purchase of firearms by federal agents, the providing of money by federal agents to a third party for the purpose of buying firearms with any or all of these actions intending to have the result of firearms ending up in either Mexico and/or in the hands of Chicago gangbangers?"

I probably missed something that could be used for wiggle room since I'm a relatively fully-functioning adult, but it might come down to this so that there are no future 'misunderstandings'.

I think Holder and anyone else who green-lighted or knew about this thing should be impeached and then turned over to Mexico for crimes against that country.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

I was fortunate enough to be a part of a very special evening. Brigid and I accompanied Dave to the Indy Symphony last night. Beforehand, the lovely Brigid and I drew straws as to how we would dress for the evening. It turned out that she was Classy and I was Tartie (unfortunately no way to put a heart over the i). I arrived at the new Range with some time to spare to change clothes and share some giggles. I also had a run in with TSA Canine Agent-in-Training Barkley, but there will be more on that tomorrow.

Dave arrived and off we went downtown to the Symphony. We made our grand entrance with Dave in between Brigid and I, arms linked, and smiles all around for the poor men with only one woman. Interestingly enough, there was a gaggle of nuns (which led to a lot of conversation about the proper term for a group of nuns). As an FYI, the proper term is a superfluity of nuns.

Having no shame, and resigning myself to going to hell anyway (to the point of picking out the proper handbasket), I almost gave two older women whiplash in the bathroom by commenting that I wasn't sure that the new lipstick I bought is duct-tape proof (Brigid and I are still searching for the lipstick that will stand up to duct tape the way it did on NCIS). Also, I made such comments during the concert into Dave's ear such as "Hey, isn't this the part when the Orion slave chick makes her entrance?" or (when several of the nuns went past) "Pssst, hey Dave, the nuns are on the run!"

Dave was the perfect gentleman and fantastic dinner companion even though Brigid and I did vex him by opening our own car doors once "Ladies, would you PLEASE wait for me to open the door for you!" And the valet parking guys couldn't figure out how to get his key out of the car so they "parked it (unlocked) really close (next to the street vendor) so they could keep a good eye on it". I got a hearty chuckle and some looks when he picked us up at the door of the restaurant for the trip back to the New Range and I said "Hey mister, we'll make it worth your while for a ride."

It was a great evening, there was much laughter, good music, Star Trek references and nuns. Thank you Dave for putting together such an amazing and fun evening (and thanks for the chocolate truffle and the creme brulee as well)!!

ETA: And another thanks, Dave, for taking me to my first symphony. I've been to operas, to plays, to Broadway, but never to a symphony. I appreciated your and Brigid's insights into the music and the artistry involved.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Happy, happy birthday! I've been so lucky to have you as my dad. Your steady presence in my life has helped to shape me into the person I am. You are proof that family is more than blood--family is heart and shared experience and love. I love you and hope that you have a wonderful day!!

And one of the good things about being a blogger is that this will get there on time, even if your cards won't (they are on the way as usual)..... *grin*